Travel Journal

Not Exactly a Trump Deal

(Sunday 26 July 2015) by Rick Clot

Every once in a while I have an opportunity to drive to the airport and pick up people for a fee since I help a friend with his shuttle service business as an overflow backup driver. So last week I had to pick up an elderly couple. The rider told me they were coming in on American, flight ####, due to land at 12:30PM. I got to the airport cell phone lot on time and expected a call around 1:00PM. No call. 1:30 nothing. 2:00 nothing. After jumping through hoops trying to figure out where these people could possibly be, I finally gave up and left at 2:30. Truth be told, I couldn't sit around any longer in a paved parking lot in 108 degrees with no shade. She finally contacted me at 4:00PM just as we were sitting down to dinner with friends. She had given me the wrong flight number AND arrival time. What a dipwad! They actually landed at 3:30 not 12:30. Needless to say, they had to find another ride home. But there was still the matter of an unpaid fare for taking them to the airport the week before. Here's where it gets interesting. The lady mailed me a check but when I went to the bank to cash it, it unknowingly blew out of my golf cart never to be seen or heard from again. I called her back and told her if she put a "stop payment" on the check I would pay that fee since it was my fault. The bottom line here is she sent me a replacement check but also included a statement from her bank showing the stop payment fee I said I would pay. What I should have done was sent her a bill for the ride from the airport that she stiffed me on. But I learned several lessons from this.
1) American Airlines will give you passenger information from a specific flight.
2) Collect all fares up front.
3) When going to the bank to cash a check in your golf cart put it away in the glove box.
4) Never do business with this lady ever again.